Good Garbage Gab, October 30, 2012

It's starting to get here in Louisville and I thought this would be a great re-purposed idea for today.  And with Halloween tomorrow I thought I'd include a link to instructions on using two-gallon milk cartons to make a Storm Trooper mask for those who have waited until the last minute. (Note: You can use pool noodles cut down and the bottom wrapped in foil or masking tape as light sabers.)

Ever wondered what you could do with that dryer lint that you so quickly throw in the garbage? How about making fire starters? Fill an empty toilet paper roll with the dryer lint. Use it at camp or in your fire place in place of kindling. It's that easy! 

Here's the link for the Storm Trooper mask... This is on my to do list for sure, just so I can say I have one. I love Star Wars!!! 

http://www.filthwizardry.com/2010/10/milk-jug-storm-trooper-helmet.html

And for good measure a picture of the light saber idea. I really wish I could say I came up with these two ideas...  

Another "WOW! Now why didn't I think of that," moment has hit you! Yay! That is the purpose of these posts. To get you thinking beyond the norm. Making you look at everything you toss in the trash a second time to see if there is somewhere else the item could be of value if re-purposed. We encourage you to seek proper recycling if you can't figure out another way to use the item. If you are unsure, email us. We will help you find the best place for it!

Good Garbage Gab, October 19, 2012

Welcome to the first edition of Good Garbage Gab, where we offer useful tips and crafts for re-purposing items that you may normally just throw away (or hopefully recycle), or save not knowing what you can do with them. We may  also showcase local reuse artists and give you links to articles we think you might find interesting. We are doing this to get your motor running and thinking about the various ways you can reuse everyday items to keep them out of our waste streams.

     In order to keep from scaring off those new to repurposing, I thought it would be nice to start slow and easy. So I'm offering up a simple tip and a simple craft.

 2-Liter Bottle Canisters

You can use these for tons of items: Coffee, tea bags, sugar, crayons, markers, cotton balls, q-tips, change, and a host of other things. I like them because you can see what is in them so easily and when something is on the top shelf, with me being so short, that comes in quite handy. No guessing...

    What you need: Two 2-liter Bottles, washed, dried and any labels removed, Sharp knife such as an X-acto knife and a sharp pair of scissors.  

    Using the knife, cut the two bottles to look like the pictures here. Using the scissors, trim the bottles neatly.

Place the shorter one on top of the taller one and there you have it... a lidded, clear canister.

Another option is to paint them like these and use them as piggy banks, or whatever you can dream up! Both designs were painted with Rust-Oleum 2X satin spray paint and then details added with acrylic craft paint. 

Be sure to recycle the left over plastic!

And if you thought that was easy... Here's something even easier. No craft skills involved.......Button Earring Holder

You know all those extra buttons you get on a new shirt? Or the ones you take off a shirt before you reuse it as a rag or for other re-purposed items? Use them to keep your matched earrings together in your jewelry box or when taking  a trip in your jewelry bag. 

Did you go DUH?!?! Why didn't I think of that? Yeah, me too. 

Hope you enjoyed this new feature of our blog and can put to use the ideas we share. If you have something you've done and would like to share, please let us know by emailing or commenting here. Share our blog and Facebook page with all your friends and let's all work towards a better Community! 

Yarn, Yarn, Yarn...and Ideas

Yarn, Yarn and more Yarn!!! Oh my goodness the yarn! Received two, well stuffed black garbage bags full of all types of....yep, you guessed it YARN! We are quickly filling the shelves we built last week. We have to build more ASAP!!!! We are in need of scrap plywood, 2x4's and anything else that can be used as shelving, or stackable bins, plastic shelves, bookcases, etc.

Besides collecting stuff, we have been busy working on our plan and talking with everyone we possibly can about the creative reuse center. Passing out cards to anyone who will give us a minute. We have received a very warm response to our idea and hope we are building a great team of future volunteers as well!

We are starting a new feature this week simply called Good Garbage Gab. At least once a week (possibly more) we will be featuring ideas on repurposing items in your house, showcasing reuse artists and sharing thought provoking articles and such. We hope this inspires you to find ways to repurpose other things you might throw away and to keep as much out of the waste streams as possible.  Please feel free to post or email us with your own ideas. You are welcome to send us pictures of your finish products too. If you know a reuse artist, we'd also love to hear all about them. Be on the look out for the first post coming soon!

Thank you for following along, supporting and sharing our adventure in building Louisville's Creative Reuse Center. Keep watch for some exciting news over the next few weeks!

-Lynn & Anne

Hard at work...

We had a fairly productive week... Got some shelving built, had some great meetings, made some great decisions. We are moving forward!!! Each day Good Garbage is coming closer to reality!

Here are some pictures of the storage unit and one volunteer, who also donated the lumber, building shelves.

We have a home...

... at least for storage. This past Sunday we made it feel like home. Sort of anyway. We worked our butts clearing and cleaning up (as best you can a dusty, old buildings basement) our storage area.

Fortunate to get a jump start, we also couldn't do as much as we hoped because the old tenant hasn't moved out of it completely yet. Though we were very lucky to get a great start on collecting "junk" left behind by old tenants in the Hope Worsted Mills building. Lots of wood for shelves, the old plexiglass from the original windows that are being replaced, various types of paper, old computer keyboards, windows and lots of other stuff. With it being such an old building, we also felt very lucky we didn't run into any other furry 'tenants.' We left dirty but truly energized.

Today and over the next couple weeks we will build shelves, and continue looking for bins, storage containers, tables, and of course donated items we will be able to sell in the reuse center. The behind the scenes work for the center is keeping us extremely busy as well. We hope in the next few weeks to be sharing some very exciting news. Be sure to keep checking back on our progress...